Landowner in an uphill battle

MAPLETON — From Wendell Gibby's 120 acres on Maple Mountain, the quiet scene that spreads out below contradicts the controversy that troubles the land.

West Mountain frames the far horizon, and majestic Mt. Timpanogos sits to the northeast. In the valley, Utah Lake shimmers in the sunlight, with well-laid-out communities nearly surrounding it.

In the foreground, just below Gibby's property, posh, tree-lined homes sit neatly among manicured lawns.

"That's the nub of the issue," Gibby said of the seven-year battle to develop his mountain property. "Those people don't want houses above them."

A group of Mapleton residents called the "Friends of Maple Mountain" don't want Gibby to build 47 homes on his side of the mountain, and the sides take their struggle before the Utah Supreme Court today. The hearing is another chapter in a number of fights over Gibby's land.

To build or not

That land has U.S. Forest Service property on the south, north and east. There is a site for a 10-acre city park on the northwest side at the base of the mountain and another on the southwest side.

Mapleton initially prevented development of Gibby's property. Gibby fought long and hard and eventually won. The City Council agreed to rezone the land for 47 homes on large lots averaging 1  1/2 acres.

That set off the skirmish between Gibby — a Provo radiologist, not a professional developer — and the Friends of Maple Mountain, who filed a referendum to reverse the rezone. Fourth District Judge Fred Howard dismissed it and the Friends of Maple Mountain appealed to the Utah Supreme Court.

The flap just added to Gibby's duels with Mapleton. Legal fees have cost him more than $1 million, he said. Mapleton has spent even more in taxpayer dollars, pushing $1.3 million, city administrator Bob Bradshaw said.

A licensed pilot, Gibby has stretched a 3,000-foot dirt runway across a wide bench above the home sites. The runway has clearance from the Federal Aviation Administration, but its use is contingent on final approval from the city, Bradshaw said.

The airstrip is just for fun, Gibby said; the land too valuable to leave as a runway.

Tall power lines border the dirt airstrip, but Gibby plans to move them. He wanted to relocate them below his home sites, but that would have put them above the homes in the luxurious Eagle Rock subdivision.

The plan now is to tuck them away high above the airstrip behind a mountain accessed only by a steep, rocky road with treacherous switchbacks.

The road leads to a lookout point, from which dirt roads can be seen clearly cutting into mountain brush, defining Gibby's planned subdivision. The terrain won't be disturbed other than that, he said, and roughly 40 percent of the land cannot be developed because it's too steep.